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Growing citrus in containers is easy if you do this - Growing Guide
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Growing citrus in containers is easy if you do this – Growing Guide



If you have had problems keeping your citrus trees alive in containers it is probably because of your soil. In my experience, I’ve found citrus tree to be easy to grow in pots. This video is a guide on how to grow them in containers and goes over the best practices as well as the best soils to use.

We are in Southern California in zone 10A.

I grow avocados in pots too:
Growing avocados longterm in containers

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0:00 Introduction
0:50 Organic vs mineral based soils
1:20 Ingredients in my mineral based soil
3:06 Other types of citrus soils
3:40 Setting up a new citrus tree
4:38 Fertilizing citrus trees
5:33 Watering citrus trees
6:35 Sun requirements
7:11 Dealing with the cold
7:56 Container sizes
8:59 Container materials
9:29 When to up pot your plant
10:29 Root pruning
10:47 Issues with too much fruit
11:28 Basic maintenance for citrus trees
12:09 Common pests
13:56 Taste test

21 Comments

  1. @LegacyFigs

    Thanks for the informative video. I'm lucky to live about 40 minutes from Laguna Hills Nursery. I've just started my fruit tree journey in zone 10b (coastal). My passion (obsession?) currently is fig trees but I have a Mexican lime tree (Key Lime) that was planted in my back yard long before I moved here. It is truly awful, bitter tasting, and virtually inedible. I extracted seeds and hope the genetic variation will produce better fruit. Time will tell. The mother tree will be getting the chainsaw treatment soon to make way for my cherimoya trees after I wash the big box root rot "soil" off them. I use my own semi-inert variation of Gary's Top Pot learned from my bonsai days. 50% decomposed granite, 25% perlite, and 25% peat moss with lava rock in a 1" or so layer at the bottom. My little lime seedlings are growing like weeds in it now as well as some Baobab seeds I bought from California Baobab (.com) recently. I won't be moving big pots around so the weight is not a big consideration for me at this time. I cringe when i see so many of the YouTube videos out there recommending adding wood based compost IN the soil mix. I have killed too many plants over the years with that faulty method. Never again. You and Gary both have the long term secret soil answer.

  2. @MyHippieSoul1969

    Hi there. Can you please do an instructional vid on root pruning potted citrus trees. I can’t seem to find a good one. Thank you.

  4. @chitongchang

    Wonderful video. one cube feet of top pot soil costs ~$23. it is quite an investment. Do you find this cost prohibitive?

  5. @m27ny

    Please, help me! I fell in love with this quite large, orange tree, and I bought it. I live in NY. They delivered it from a greenhouse in cold, nasty weather. I placed it near a big south window. I water about once per week to 10 days when the soil is dry. I spray mist daily on the leaves because I am scared that my place is too dry; I have radiators. But the tree lost a lot of leaves, it is not dead, it has new growing leaves and new flowers, and still 4 fully grown oranges. Why is it losing leaves, and what to do to make it stop?

  7. @TarpeianRock

    Here in Europe peat moss isn’t readily available, it has to do with the preservation of bogs or something like that. I wonder what to use instead.

  9. @chanthoubun8535

    Hi sir, I just plant satsuma tree in the pot last moth. Should I stake wood or plastic in the center of the tree now or not?
    Thank you

  11. @McGarrenFlack

    Thank you for sharing your experience. I love the idea of mineral-based potting soil and keeping organic matter at the top.

  15. @DubSlugg

    Just bought a ton of top pot from laguna hills nursery , going to try this out with all my citrus 🤞🤞

  19. @FosterFarmsOk

    Glad I found your channel. I started growing citrus in containers here in Oklahoma but about 10 years ago i decided to put them in the ground and protect them with covering and christmas lights for heat. I still have a few in containers until I decide if they are worthy of going in the ground.

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